Heartbreaking.

All good questions, Don. Another on my mind is why Oakland isn't using the crime reduction model that Richmond has adopted, which has so radically reduced its crime rate. There was a report about it somewhere in this January 16th KPFA Upfront, titled "Richmond's success cutting violence with community policing," http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/88076.

That's where I heard about Richmond's, but I imagine there are some text reports about it too. I asked my District #3 City Councilor, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who used to live in Richmond, why Oakland wasn't following Richmond's lead, or asking someone from Richmond to come and help Oakland, and she gave me a rather strange response: that the Richmond PD didn't have the time or resources to come and help Oakland. If Oakland could afford $250,000 to hire Bratton as a consultant, why not a neighbor in Richmond for half the price? I'm sure the Richmond PD would have found the time and expertise to share in exchange for such a consulting fee.

Wow. I didn't realize Donald Lacy held it down at KPOO for five hours on Saturday morning!!! Thassalotta air time to be responsible for!

The FBI would put a Black special agent out there with this announcement.

Summer Reese put Andrew Phillips on administrative leave, pending an investigation of complaints on Wednesday, May 1st. Today, May 3rd, Summer Reese held a staff meeting to introduce the Interim Interim General Manager, Richard Pirodsky, to staff. She has agreed to hold an evening meeting for the same purpose, so that unpaid staff can attend, next Tuesday, May 6th.

Hi, Mauri, thank you for taking interest. Adrienne has answered most of your questions. And it would be easier for me to say that I agree with almost all of what's said here except that I'm not sure JR isn't getting "due process." But due process often sucks. Oftentimes it seems to mean legal representation if you can afford it. Last year the Sheriff of San Francisco was suspended from office, without pay, and he and his wife then went through a nearly year-long administrative legal proceeding that might be called "due process," with three pro bono lawyers by their side until he was reinstated. But, if those three lawyers hadn't stepped up and offered to work pro bono, or with an agreement to work without payment unless and until the Sheriff was reinstated with back pay - as he was - he would not have gotten his "due process." How "due" is that, really?

With regard to JR's suspension, I'm not sure what "due process" means because I don't know how the CWA complaint against JR is proceeding through the Pacifica Foundation or the Pacifica National Board, and/or what criteria are being used to evaluate it, aside from the amount of public pressure being applied by CWA and its supporters and by JR and his.

I like the pictures of all the towers that should be reaching 45 million listeners.

I'm unpaid staff at KPFA and an elected member of the Unpaid Staff Organization Council, and I am on the hiring committee for a subscriptions assistant. The subscriptions assistant has some responsibility for handling the phone room during the fund drive, keeping track of pledges and premiums, making sure the right premiums are delivered to subscribers, and solving problems for KPFA subscribers who don't get their premiums. Not a glamorous media job but an important job because the fund drives are what make KPFA has a budget, however imperfectly that budget may be handled. If subscribers don't get their premiums, they may not subscribe again.

This is also a half time job that includes full benefits, so there are a lot of applicants who want to do it to support another passion, including social justice journalism, and just because it's a KPFA job.

I'm not saying this to dispute other claims here, only to say that it's not quite true that "the unpaid staff have NO say in decisions about the budget, hiring, office allocation etc." The UPSO Council ˆ asked for a voice in hiring decisions and the result is that I am on the hiring committee for KPFA's first hire that is not "interim" in quite a few years.

Two of the three elected staff members on the KPFA Local Station Board, Frank Sterling and Joy Moore, are unpaid staff and the KPFA Local Station Board makes recommendations for the most powerful position at the station, that of General Manager, which are then sent to the head of the Pacifica Foundation for a final decision.

I'm adding this simply for the sake of precision. Much of the disempowerment of unpaid staff described here is accurate.

A Navy veteran suffering effects of deployment near Fukushima cannot go to a VA Hospital?

West Oakland has a grocery store. It's a 99 cent store, but still a fairly comprehensive grocery. That and Mandela's Foods Cooperative and the People's Credit Union are right across from the West Oakland BART Station. A few blocks south of the station are Tony Coleman's Bikes4Life and the Revolution Café. With a couple more local businesses on 7th Street, near the West Oakland BART station, it'll become a real neighborhood commercial district.